


Any Port in a Storm - Bonus Scene

by lizandletdie



Series: The Storm 'Verse [4]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-28
Updated: 2015-02-28
Packaged: 2018-03-15 14:35:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3450716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizandletdie/pseuds/lizandletdie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An alternate take on the end of chapter 24 of Any Port in a Storm rewritten from Rumpelstiltskin's perspective as he returns home after facing August in the forest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Any Port in a Storm - Bonus Scene

**Author's Note:**

> For Leni, who requested it.
> 
> I hate that I have to do this, but apparently I do. If you're reading this fic anywhere besides AO3, it was posted without my consent and likely profited someone else. Please consider [donating](https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=CZNGXGNP4PRX4&lc=US&item_name=The%20Mantis%20Fund&currency_code=USD&bn=PP%2dDonationsBF%3abtn_donate_SM%2egif%3aNonHosted) or swinging by my Tumblr (standbyyourmantis) to let me know what you thought!

A trick.  It had all been a trick.  Rumpelstiltskin felt numb and stupid and so damn tired as he made the lonely walk from the car to the house.  It was like losing Bae all over again, only this time he was the one falling into a bottomless abyss.

And now he had to face Lacey.  He was so tired, he just wanted to go to sleep and wake up in a month or so when it was all over and he could walk away and find his son and leave this dead end town behind.  Except, he realized, for his daughter.  If he left Storybrooke, he would also be leaving his little girl behind.

He’d never meant to love this baby.  In fact, he’d done every damn thing in his power to avoid developing any connection to her at all, and yet here he was loving her nonetheless.  He was going to have to choose between his children, and he didn’t think time was going to make it any easier to do.  Necessity was sending him away from his daughter and back to Bae, but his heart wasn’t really convinced otherwise.

He climbed the stairs to their shared bedroom, and paused in the doorway.  Lacey was laying on her side turned away from the door, but there was just enough light in the room to let him make out the curve of her body and the steady rise and fall of her chest as he changed into his pajamas more by muscle memory than anything else.

Whatever sins he’d committed by creating this curse and passing the cost onto Regina, he was paying for them now.  He had loved Belle, and Gold had loved Lacey.  This little girl was conceived in love (or as close to love as could be found in the curse town) and her father may never know her.  

Any number of idiots could sire children they had no interest in ever raising, meanwhile Rumpelstiltskin was desperate to be with his children and wasn’t sure he’d ever be allowed to have both at the same time.  It was a fact that would haunt him the rest of his life.

He climbed in between the sheets and felt her stir a little bit, but she didn’t wake.  He gingerly slid closer to her, indulging himself for just a minute in the life of Mr. Gold.  Mr. Gold, who would have spent the last few months frantically shopping for toys and cribs and going to doctor’s appointments and choosing names.  Mr. Gold who would have seen his daughter as a blessing and not as one more thing to be stolen from him as one more punishment heaped onto an already weary soul.

Rumpelstiltskin wrapped his arm around Lacey as carefully as possible, waiting to see if she would rouse again before he placed his hand on her belly.  He couldn’t quite decide where he wanted to put it, he’d never really had the opportunity to touch a pregnant belly before.  Milah had carried Bae to term while he’d been away, and he hardly dared to touch Lacey at all.  But now he could touch his fill, desperate to be just a little bit closer to his daughter for just a moment.  

The tears he’d not dared shed in front of August Booth finally came to him, and he found himself sobbing into her hair as he caressed Lacey delicately so as not to wake her.

He’d never felt further away from Bae, but for just this one moment under the cover of night, he could at least pretend like this life was his.  He didn’t even know his daughter’s name, and he didn’t know what the future would hold, but for just this moment at least he  _had_  a daughter and he knew then that he would love her until he stopped drawing breath.


End file.
